CNRS scientists and international collaborators have shown that Parisian street gutters are oases of microscopic life, home to microalgae, fungi, sponges and mollusks. Grouped into communities, these microorganisms may help ...

Earlier this year, researchers announced they had found fossils of microbial life in the rocks of northern Quebec, Canada dating to at least 3.77 billion years old, making them the oldest known life form on Earth. It was ...

Employees working in unionised work places are more likely to benefit from family friendly practices that promote a healthy work-life balance and are better than the statutory minimum, according to UCL-led research.

Massive amounts of plastic bits that are dangerous to aquatic life are washing into the oceans and into even the most pristine waters. But how it all gets there from inland cities has not been fully understood. Now scientists ...

Our climate is out of balance: Increasing accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere has caused the Earth's temperature to increase by 0.8° C since the beginning of the industrial revolution. According to a study by Thorsten ...

Life

Life on Earth:

Life (cf. biota) is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have self-sustaining biological processes ("alive," "living"), from those which do not —either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as "inanimate."

In biology, the science that studies living organisms, "life" is the condition which distinguishes active organisms from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, functional activity and the continual change preceding death. A diverse array of living organisms (life forms) can be found in the biosphere on Earth, and properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria — are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information. Living organisms undergo metabolism, maintain homeostasis, possess a capacity to grow, respond to stimuli, reproduce and, through natural selection, adapt to their environment in successive generations. More complex living organisms can communicate through various means.

In philosophy and religion, the conception and nature of life varies, and offer interpretations in the frameworks of existence and consciousness, and touch on many other related issues, such as, ontology, value, life stance, purpose, conceptions of God, the soul and the afterlife.